We arrived on Saturday evening and stayed in a small hotel room in Miami. On Sunday we took a very crowded shuttle bus to the port and boarded in about 1 hour (last year it reportedly took 4 hours so this is good). After the sound equipment was loaded by crain (see the photos!), the headliner band, The Barenaked Ladies, started. We pulled out of port at around sunset.
On Monday, we got to lounge around by the pool for a while since nothing much musical was happening until about 3pm. Cuba was clearly visible. We had dinner in the dining room each night and quickly learned to ignore the wait-staff's "entertainment" which always included some dancing by the diners. After 3 courses, this is a bit much! There was band/music entertainment each night until at least 1am, but I didn't always have the camera with me, or the lighting was too low for good photos. I think there were about 8 bands on the ship, along with a couple jugglers, a few comedians, etc.
On Tuesday morning we made landfall at Grand Cayman, where we spent a few hours on a beautiful beach. As we took the tender to shore, I snapped a photo of our room's window - the one in the middle of that first photo of the outside of the ship - the first non-porthole window on the 1st deck. There were 7 ships in port that day! We wandered around the beach a bit and so there are pictures of Deb walking along the beach, and Jenna and me on chaises. After the beach, we had a nice lunch (with fruity mojitos) at a restaurant within view of the ships at port. Later we hung out on the ship waiting for Great Big Sea (a band) to start playing. After that we watched a juggler, a singer/songwriter with guitar (no pics), a band called Carbon Leaf (I bought both their CDs!) and then on to the headline concert (Deb and I) to see Barenaked Ladies (a.k.a. BNL) that evening. We were in the WAAAY back, so the camera saw more than I did, I'm sorry to say. It sounded great though!
On Wednesday, we got to Jamaica, where I went horseback riding (on land and
in the sea), Jenna went zipping through the forest canopy
harnessed to wires, and Padi and Deb had an adventure to and in and from
the Green Grotto Cave. It was cloudy there, so I was glad I had spent two
wonderful weeks in Jamaica on a previous vacation. That evening, we went
to a bunch of different shows - stage to stage to stage.
Thursday morning I went to a photography workshop with the official BNL photographer (see www.tourphotographer.com) which was entertaining and educational. Padi and Jenna went to "meet the managers" where they learned a bunch of stuff I won't bore you with. In the afternoon Padi and I went to the songwriter's session where 8 songwriters, each with a guitar, sing a song. Repeat 3 more times. Three hours of incredible music made by a single singer and guitar. (The photo shows only 7 people - the 8th guy was about 10 minutes late since he had another session that ran long.) After that, we went see/hear to more bands: Deb and I to see Gaelic Storm (they're coming to Annapolis in April and we'll go see them again, with Alan!), and Jenna and Padi had their headline concert with BNL. After the headline show, at about 3am, ALL THE BANDS got up on one stage and started singing every song known to man from 1960 to about 1995 in a mass sing. It was entertaining, but not particularly tuneful; a bit of humor to finish the trip. I went to bed at 4am, but Padi tells me that they were told to stop singing at 4:30 as we had arrived back in the port of Miami and people ashore were trying to sleep!
We were (rudely) awoken at 7am and finally disembarked at 9am. Caught our respective planes around 1:30 and Padi, Deb, and I arrived back at our house to regale Alan for several hours that evening.
It was exhausting (so much to see and do all the time) but very relaxing (no thoughts of work could possibly creep in).